Elliott was a Windsor firefighter. For firefighters, being on the job is critical. A certain number of firefighters are needed to operated fire trucks safely. If there aren’t enough firefighters, trucks have to be taken out of service.

But sometimes, Elliott just didn’t show up for his shift. Sometimes, he didn’t show up for two shifts. The last time, he went AWOL for five shifts. Firefighters work 24-hour shifts, so five shifts are equivalent to 15 days or three weeks of work.

Often, when he did show up, he was late, very late. Once, he finally checked in nine hours late, after his employer left a message on his answering machine. Another time, he was five hours late. Still another time, it was several hours.

It’s all documented in arbitrator Harold Snow’s ruling upholding Elliott’s termination, obtained by The Windsor Star. I tried to reach Elliott but was unsuccessful.

Sometimes Elliott had an explanation, but it wasn’t a good one. The dog ate my homework (that’s my comment). Much of the time, there was no explanation. When he missed the five shifts, he didn’t even bother to notify his employer.

Over and over, he was warned that this wasn’t acceptable. He was told in a letter and warned he would face discipline. Then he was reprimanded. Then he was suspended without pay, first for half a shift, then for an entire shift, then two shifts, finally four shifts. He was required to pay back time.

Finally, he received his last warning:

“Failure to report for work as scheduled in the future may result in further discipline up to and including discharge,” the letter stated. “We hope that you will realize the seriousness of your situation so that you will rectify this problem immediately. Should you require assistance in correcting this problem, I would suggest you contact the Employee Assistance program at…”

Three months later, he missed the five shifts. While those absences were being investigated, he was late for another shift. It was official: he had the worst attendance record in the department.

Elliott was called to a meeting with then-deputy chief Tim Berthiaume. He told Berthiaume there were “barriers that sometimes prevented (him) from attending.” Literally, there were barriers – he was in jail during one shift for breaching his bail conditions from a previous incarceration. He violated an order not to contact his ex-wife.

There’s no doubt Elliott had personal problems, including a difficult divorce. He said he was under a doctor’s care. He was asked to provide a doctor’s note. His doctor wrote that while he had treated Elliott in the past, he had not seen him for a year and couldn’t comment on his condition. In fact, Elliott had cancelled one appointment and didn’t show up for three others.

Finally, after a dozen incidents over nine years, the city fired Elliott in 2004.

But that wasn’t the end of him, not by a long shot.

Elliott did what everyone with a sense of entitlement would do; he filed a grievance. His union, the Windsor Professional Firefighters Association, did the very thing that turns people against organized labour; it took up his case, which ended up in arbitration.

It argued that Elliott had a disability. That it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t go to work. That his employer had therefore discriminated against him. That the department should have accommodated him instead. That even if it was his fault, firing him was too severe.

“We thought the employer could have done more to alleviate the situation,” association president Ed Dickson told me.

As if Elliott bears no responsibility.

Elliott wasn’t sick, and he wasn’t likely to change, Snow concluded.

“There is nothing to suggest to me that by the summer of 2004 the grievor was making any improvements in his attendance,” he wrote in his decision. “…If anything, the grievor’s conduct was becoming worse.”

And here is the crux (if you haven’t already guessed it): “It was almost as though the grievor thought that he did not need to conform to the employer’s expectations,” Snow wrote.

He was right. Elliott had two other jobs after he was fired, at the Salvation Army and Can-Am Indian Friendship Centre. Both those employers were concerned about his attendance, too.

The city could have paid Elliott to quit, but this is exactly why it couldn’t afford to. As city solicitor George Wilkki told The Star’s Doug Schmidt, ” You don’t want to reward someone for being a screw-up.”

But it’s insane that it took eight years and $344,072 of taxpayers’ money – more than a third of a million dollars – to fire Kim Elliott. It took 40 days to present the extensive evidence. There were 143 exhibits. Some of the numerous witnesses were brought in from out of town. There were numerous legal points.

“…no stone was left unturned in this arbitration,” Snow wrote.

And all this dragged on over eight years because it’s hard to get a busy arbitrator and lawyers for both sides in the same room at the same time.

It shouldn’t be this hard to fire someone like Kim Elliott, and it shouldn’t cost taxpayers a single cent.

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